First Look: Every Flavour Has a Topping To Match at Suga Rays, a Gelato Shop From the Tori’s Team

Chef Tinee Su mastered Melbourne brunch at her Humble Rays cafes, and she expertly blends Japanese flavours with classic baked goods at her Hot-Listed laneway bakery Tori’s. But for her latest project, she’s turned to her native Thailand for inspiration.

That led her back to a familiar ingredient – coconut, a staple of many Thai desserts. She quickly landed on the idea of using coconut cream to make gelato. At the end of July, she opened Suga Rays, an A’Beckett Street gelato shop where everything is vegan.

You’ll always find ube, Thai tea and matcha scoops as well as some specials such as miso caramel injeolmi (Korean roasted soybeans). But there are also savoury options such as wasabi and edamame.

“We’re trying to experiment, I don’t want people to think plant-based has to be boring. That’s why we’re putting in a lot of homework,” Su says.

Thai-inspired flavours are also in the works. For future scoops, the team is looking at the Thai desserts – such as kluai buat chi (lady finger bananas cooked in coconut milk) and gang buad faktong (kabocha squash or pumpkin cooked in coconut milk) – that originally inspired Su to play around with coconut.

Joining Su is chef Tong Visithnanont (formerly of Humble Rays), who leads the kitchen. “We spent a couple of months testing recipes and creating the gelato formula,” Su says. “The hardest part was getting the taste and consistency.” They landed on a recipe that uses a combination of soy, coconut cream and rice bran oil from King, a Thai brand owned by Su’s family. She says the oil helps bring out a nutty, creamy and slightly toasty flavour that “you won’t find in other places [in Melbourne]”.

Each flavour comes with a special topping. The classic coconut is paired with a toasted coconut biscuit on top. A special strawberry chilli salt gelato (inspired by the Southeast Asian habit of snacking on fruit dipped in chilli and salt) comes with a sprinkle of plum salt sugar and a pinch of chilli powder. Other toppings include toasted coconut cookies, red bean paste and house-made dango (Japanese rice flour dumplings) with a palm sugar caramel sauce.

Scoops come in a regular cup, waffle bowl, or a soft fluffy Sugapan – Suga Rays’ plant-based version of shokupan, made with rice bran shortening in place of butter.

Suga Rays
8/120 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne
No phone

Hours
Sun to Thu midday–10.30pm
Fri and Sat midday–11pm

Suga Rays